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oda’s journal

beer wars

· · 🌡️ 23°F

the other day, i watched a documentary called Beer Wars. good documentary; it seems that in a lot of ways beer is a few years ahead of vegetables in terms of big vs. small, as the craft beers are growing in popularity.

but there is a super-villain in the beer industry. and the short story is that i vowed never to drink another budweiser or anheuser/busch product again in my life. they are evil.

i broke that promise only two nights later, tonight.

i wanted to get some beer for me and mark. i drove to the beer store to pick up some OV, old vienna, for $7/12 pack. (the cheapest, best non-anheuser/bush product in a 20 mile radius, at least.) when i went to check out, the cashier informed me about their special on budweiser-select 55: only $7/24 pack! i am pretty poor, so this was absolutely too good to pass up.

i let down my principles so quickly. (i got both the O.V. and the busweiser select 55)

but it seems that anheuser-busch had the last laugh. budweiser-select 55 has only 2.4% alcohol. that is like drinking one water for every beer. (OV, and my other favorite beer, Labatts, are both 5%)
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💬 9 comments

  1. uncutsaniflush ·

    I hate to be the bearer of bad news but your other favorite beer, Labatts, is owned by the Anheuser-Busch-Inbev multi-national company. And Old Vienna is brewed in Canada these days by Molson which is division of Molson-Coors.

  2. libertad ·

    I didn't know that uncut. See it is so complicated to understand where our money is going. Takes a bit of work to really understand who owns who. I had a teacher that always used to say "Have a Coors for Fascism." I always thought that was funny but I don't drink Coors. That's a very easy one to avoid considering that their beer is gross.

  3. uncutsaniflush ·

    @libertad - I heard the same thing about Coors. I had a professor who said that it is very appropriate that Adolf Coors first name was Adolf. But I was never clear on which of the 3 generations of Adolfs in the Coors family were fascist.

  4. oda ·

    e:uncutsantiflush, what I found was that while Labatts brewed and sold in Canada is owned by anheuser-busch,

    "In the United States, Labatt brand beers are sold under license by Labatt USA, which since 2009 has been fully independent of the Canadian firm and a subsidiary of the privately-held North American Breweries of Rochester, New York."

    according to wikipedia.

    i haven't found anything saying or disputing that OV is owned by Molson-Coors. But I don't even dislike Molson-Coors one one-hundredth of how much I dislike anheuser-busch. They are not the ones trying to get rid of the craft beers.

  5. oda ·

    you are right. OV is owned by Molson-Coors.

  6. uncutsaniflush ·

    @oda - thanks for the clarification about Labatts USA.

    To me, "under license" means that Anheuser-Busch still owns the brand and makes money from every bottle or can of Labatts sold in the U.S even if it is a lesser amount than before.

    Personally, I think it is funny and ironic that none of the famous Canadian beer brands are Canadian-owned anymore.

    If memory serves, even Sleeman's is foreign-owned.



  7. vincent ·

    OV to me seems to be the local answer for PBR. It is a brand that fell on hard times, does not advertise and gets sales due to it's essence.

    It is funny to me that Labatt USA, Magic Hat & Genesee are all under the same roof.

    As for Anheuser-Busch, they just really are just a peg in a bigger machine. They're owned by InBev now which is Brazilian/Dutch. There is no doubt that they were bullies in the past but they're just owned now. Their problem was that they just made a few beers well and that was just about it. I personally liked a few of their beers; Bud Light is great when it's hot out, Michelob just tasted great out of the old school tear drop bottles and Mich Ultra well it's a good time if you want to experience a bit of the taste of Michelob with less calories.

    Personally I hope the Super Low Carb beers stick around, but it is almost like drinking non-alcoholic beer for the most part. Plus I think MGD 64 "tastes" better.

    Now the knock on Coors has always been that they're been extremely anti union. To me I've always appreciated the taste of the original banquet Coors. The Rocky Mountain Water is something else, but I'm convinced that the stuff that they sell on the east coast is brewed in Reston VA. So I have to fly out west to enjoy it again. Which stinks because I would always enjoy it when the weather is cold and the snow is flying.

  8. ladycroft ·

    i never liked budweiser to start, ick!

  9. metalpeter ·

    I'm guessing that Documentary is pretty good, I've never seen it though.... There was also a show of the same name I never saw but not sure if it was connected to the movie........

    I Myself don't like Beer at all.... Now that being said I have never tried any of the fruity stuff other then pumpkin (first few sips where good) I wonder how like a Blue Berry Wheat or (Pearl St. Grill) has one they Call a Don Cherry or something...... I like the mike's and things like that. But the 1st kind of thing I had was I think at Planet Hollywood in Toronto (Years ago around Wrestlemania 12 I think) .. It was a bottle with an X on it, think it was called X.........

    In Terms of the Beers from Canada I have seen an ad during some kind of sports on The Canadian Channel for some beer that looks like it is supposed to be very rugged and I assume that no American Company would own them, well maybe they own the company that owns them.....

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